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GROUND curators working on Bulawayo Athletic Club (BAC) cricket field yesterday.

Ricky Zililo Senior Sports Reporter
MATABELELAND Tuskers cricket franchise has started preparing the wickets at Bulawayo Athletic Club (BAC) ahead of international matches to be held in the city later this year

Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) grounds curator Fungai Shanganya is leading groundsmen working on revamping the facility to get it ready to host first class matches by August.

ZC is bracing for a dramatic upturn of international games with cricket giants India, New Zealand and Pakistan’s tours already confirmed while discussions are underway to bring Ireland, Afghanistan and the West Indies.

The Bulawayo-based franchise is targeting the Pakistan and West Indies tours and is hopeful the Ireland or Afghanistan matches could be played at Queens Sports Club.

Shanganya said visiting teams would play warm-up games at BAC.

“BAC has in the past hosted a number of first-class matches and since we expect international matches to come to Bulawayo, we’ve been advised to prepare BAC so that visiting teams can use the facility for warm-up games. It will take us about a month to finish working on BAC. What we are doing at BAC is scarifying the wicket and fixing the outfield as well as grass banks,” said Shanganya.

After working on the wickets, the outfield and the embankment, Shanganya and his team will rehabilitate the nets and concrete wickets.

The ZC grounds’ specialist said work at BAC would cost about $5,000.

Shanganya is also overseeing maintenance at Queens Sports Club.

He said the five wickets at Queens Sports Club are ready for use for international matches.

“At Queens Sports Club we are just maintaining the wickets. There are 10 wickets, five used for local matches and the other five are for international games. The facility is ready for games because we never stopped working when the domestic season ended,” he said.

Bulawayo, which hosted Afghanistan and South Africa last year, is likely to host Pakistan’s reciprocal tour after Zimbabwe became the first Test-playing nation to tour the sub-continent country in six years following an attack by gunmen on a Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore in 2009.

Since that deadly attack, Pakistan had been forced to play all its home matches in the United Arab Emirates until Zimbabwe visited the country last month.

Zimbabwe last played at Queens Sports Club in 2014 against Afghanistan in four one-day internationals (ODIs) winning two and losing two.

Zimbabwe also played three ODIs against South Africa in Bulawayo, which were all won by the Proteas.

Matabeleland Tuskers have also been renovating the dressing rooms at Queens Sports Club to maintain international standards ahead of the tours.

In another development, Matabeleland Tuskers Cricket Franchise chief executive officer Stanley Staddon has appealed to the corporate world to assist them rehabilitate Emakhandeni Cricket Club.

“Emakhandeni Cricket Club’s grounds are not up to standard because there is no water to irrigate the grounds. We need to drill another borehole because water ran out from the one we drilled long back. We’ve not abandoned the facility but our challenge is lack of resources,” said Staddon.

Emakhandeni Cricket Club is one of Matabeleland Tuskers’ cricket development centres (CDCs) targeting high-density areas.